“He did what?!”

Alyza shouted at Clyme from the inside of a cafe within the city, loud enough for people to turn and look at them. “Perhaps you should lower your voice?” He suggests. She sits back, crossing her arms. A small plate of shortcake rests on the table, accompanied by a steaming cup of tea, “He’s so reckless..”

“He’s making a difference. We need to do more than just stop them, we need to put an end to this city’s injustice,” Clyme seemed passionate. “Victus has always been the heroic type, no?”

“More like a showoff,” she cut into her slice of cake with a fork. “What about Wolfe? Has he done his part?”

“About that..”

Wolfe stood outside a burning building, letting out a loud belly laugh while raising his arms in a victorious fashion, “Yes!!”

“He made sure to ‘evacuate’ the thugs before burning it down, but,” Clyme was staring down at his plate of meringue pie. Alyza stood up, slamming her hands on the table, “Does anyone in our party understand the word ‘discreet’?!”

“Apparently not..” He looked around at the people she kept alarming with all her shouting.

She turned to them, “What are you all looking at?!”

Victus and Wolfe met up outside of the final building, in the evening. Both of them looked fine, besides a couple of cuts and bruises. Wolfe was surprised when he saw him, entranced by his mask. “I know, right? You’re the one with the name, but eh, your beard is too long,” the half-elf teased him, and Wolfe only grunted in response.

“Target’s inside. Let’s teach ‘em a lesson,” Victus pounded his fists together while Wolfe tilted his head side to side, cracking his neck. They both looked up at the large building. On the outside, it appeared as an abandoned bar, but on the inside, a social club for the Manglyeong’s closest associates.

“Boss, they’ve hit another warehouse. It seems they’ve been targeting our largest sources of Eun. Should I increase the club’s security?” A Mask asks his leader, in their native language.

“Another one?! Do I pay you all simply to sit around and do nothing?!” He’s sitting comfortably between two women, an arm around each of them, and a cup of liquor in his hand. “Find them and kill them! I want this angma’s head on a silver fucking platter, and I want it now!”

“Yessir!”

Victus kicked the door open to the club, walking inside with Wolfe beside him. He looked around at the young women dancing in front of older, aristocratic men that owned businesses within the city. The lanterns were dimmed with stained glass that made the room more colorful than it actually was, and a band of musicians played cultural music on the stage. Hae was nowhere in sight. He figured he must be in a guarded room, likely on the second floor. Masks quickly approached them, shouting, “The angma is here! Someone tell the boss!” One of them ran upstairs, confirming the half-elf’s suspicions.

The women screamed and ran as Victus and Wolfe dispatched each Mask that attacked them, pushing through to the second floor. More men guarding the room took out weapons, rushing at the two heroes. Victus disarmed a Mask, headbutting him and stabbing his sword into the wall next to him. Wolfe roared, throwing out a haymaker that hit about three men, knocking them all down. He knelt down, slamming his fits into them while they were prone. Victus ran and hopped onto his back, diving forwards onto an archer that was aiming at Wolfe, punching his lights out.

They both looked back at each other, nodding. The door to the gang leader’s room slid open, and a vial rolled out onto the floor, leaking a liquid that quickly enveloped the room in a thick, foggy smoke.

Hao shouted, “Who’s there?! Angma?! I’ll kill you, you annoying bastard!” A silhouette entered the room. “Don’t fuck with the Manglyeong! We own this city!”

Victus emerged from the smoke, his mask stained with blood. Hae trembled at the sight of him, raising a peculiar weapon made of wood and iron, “I warned you!” He pulled back the mechanism under the weapon’s handle, and with a flash of light, a sphere of lead flew out of the metal tube towards Victus. The shot traveled past his head, into the wall. “Y-You really are a monster..”

The half-elf stood unfazed, at least in appearance. His ears were ringing, and deep down, he was terrified that he almost lost his life in that short moment. He moved closer to Hae and shoved the barrel aside, grabbing him by the neck. He slammed him up against the wall, “..I thought you were supposed to be some sort of martial arts master. I'm disappointed."

“N-No..No, please..!” He cried out, “I’ll pay you! I’ll give you whatever you want!"

Victus glared, "I warned you. Now you’ll suffer for your crimes.”

"Wh-Who is your boss? Fang? I’ll double what she's paying you!”

“Fang?”

“Are you not working for the Raiders? She is their leader. A huge thorn in my side. Kill her and I’ll make you rich beyond belief. Women, power, territory. It’ll all be yours!”

Victus slowly tilted his head, peering into the man’s eyes. He threw him to the floor and kicked him in the face. Blood dripped out of Hae's mouth onto to the wood. As the smoke finally started to clear, the artifact on the nearby table was revealed.

“Why do you have that?!” He turned his head sharply.

Hae wheezed, “Th-The Pyramid? It was a gift. My grandfather told me it led to untold riches. Guess that old bastard was sniffing too much Eun..”

Victus picked up the artifact, examining it. It had many ridges and engravings, made from a shiny blue metal. Hae desperately grabbed at his leg, coughing and gasping. He looked down at him, appalled by his pathetic exterior.

“Y-You want it..? It’s yours..Just let me go..”

Gripping the artifact, Vick knelt down and slammed it into Hae's face, finally shutting him up. He restrained hitting him again, not allowing himself the luxury of ending his life. Blood had now stained the artifact, and he put it away in his pouch.

“That's for Jearicko and Travis, you sick bastard.”

* * *

Gasps could be heard in the streets of Kamren the very next morning. People passing by stopped and looked up at the stone fountain in the center of the city, where a statue of an angel stood tall in the water. Hae hung there from his wrists, stripped down to his drawers. He was bloodied and bruised, wheezing for air while looking around at the crowd that gathered before him. “Someone call the royal guard!” A civilian shouted.

“Wait a moment!” Clyme stood amongst the crowd, appearing to be lost in thought. He then snapped his fingers, “That must be him! The leader of the Manglyeong!”

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“Yeah, you’re right! Hard to tell when he’s been beaten to a pulp, the bastard,” a random civilian replies, as more people gather around. “That filthy mongrel burned my house down!”

“Me too! I say we cut him down and feed ‘im to the sharks!”

“No, let’s let him hang up there until he starves to death!”

“Let’s burn him!”

The crowd shouts in agreement. Victus and Wolfe are standing at a nearby booth with baskets full of tomatoes. “Free tomatoes! Get your tomatoes! High in, uh..potassium-” Several people grab tomatoes from the booth, chucking them at Hae. His body is soon pummeled with red paste, and he can barely muster up the energy to whine about it. The crowd cheers when he gets hit in the face and spits out a mixture of blood and fruit, until the royal guard finally arrives and disperses them.

“Off with you all, now! This is proper business! Somebody cut down that poor bastard,” they arrest Hae, keeping his wrists bound by the rope. The guard escorts him to a carriage with bars, opening the door. He helps him inside and locks it shut.

Hae grabs onto the bars, “Wait! Where are you taking me?”

“We’ve been trying to capture you for a long time, Mr. Gimja.”

“It is Geulimja! I will not allow such mockery!”

“Yeah, yeah, keep your gob shut, will you? King Genos wants a word with Kamren’s biggest criminal. He’ll decide if you hang or not,” the guard leans in close to the bars, grinning. “But I’m really hoping he chooses the former.” The guard leaves as the carriage is slowly driven away, Hae desperately shaking on the bars, shouting and wailing for help. Victus and the others watch from a distance, filled with almost as much joy as the rest of the people. A giant burden has lifted off of the shoulders of many, thanks to them.

The half-elf turns to his party, high fiving all of them one by one, “We did it! We pulled it off! We’re so stupidly awesome!”

“Lower your voice, Vick,” Alyza urged, making sure that none of the guards had heard them.

“Right, sorry. Let’s go celebrate somewhere.”

“Um, with what money? There wasn’t a reward for this.”

“Maybe not officially,” Victus pulled out a large sack of gold. “You think each of those warehouses didn’t have a stash? The only one we didn’t get was the one this guy burned down,” he gestured to Wolfe, who remained unbothered.

Clyme chuckled, “Who says crime doesn’t pay?”

“We should set some money aside for Miss Ashflower,” Alyza suggested, and the others nodded in agreement. They left for the nearest pub to celebrate their success, unaware they were being watched from a rooftop above.

“Angma, huh?” The mysterious person's tattered blue cape flapped in the wind.

Victus was sitting next to Alyza in a booth, after they had finished eating. She leaned against him, buzzed, “You’re such a show off, you know that? I was almost worried about you..”

He was thinking about the weapon that Hae had fired at him earlier, and how quickly it may have taken his life. The mug of ale in front of him was still full, not wanting to miss a moment of what was in store for tonight. If the Masks were being supplied by a rat within the military, he was worried what this new kind of weapon meant for the war.

“See? This is what I mean,” Alyza hiccuped, “You don’t even listen to me. How are we s’posed to communicate?”

“Sorry,” Victus stared down at his plate. He’d hardly touched his food. “I’m just kinda tired, after all that’s happened..”

“..We can go home if you want. Just you and me..”

“..Sure.”

The couple slipped out unnoticed while Clyme and Wolfe sang on stage together, both as drunk as a wheelbarrow and tone deaf as a plant. Still, people sang along, liberated from the threat of Masks.

“So, about that bath..”

They walked the trail late at night, nearing the house. Victus was looking out at the pond, the pale moonlight shimmering upon its alluring reflective water. She’d sobered up by now, becoming flustered by such a suggestion.

“Y-You’re serious?” Alyza asked, blushing.

“Only if you’re okay with it.”

“It’s not that I’m not okay with it, but..I thought you said you were tired. I don’t want you to become exhausted.”

“Why would I become exhausted? It’s just a bath,” he teased, aware of the implications.

“Oh, fine then!”

The two of them went down to the pond. Even though he was the one who mentioned the idea, he had no prior experience with such things, and his nerves began to settle in. They both looked at the water, hesitant, until Victus finally plopped himself down on the ground, “Actually, it’s pretty cold tonight. Maybe we should just wait for another time.”

“You’re confusing, you know that?” She sat next to him, watching as orange leaves gently fell from the surrounding trees, creating small ripples in the pond.

“Sorry. I’m kinda worried that, if we move too quickly, we’ll be over just as fast. Does that make sense?”

“Mhm,” she nodded. “I understand. You should only do that sort of thing with the person you love..”

“Yeah, I guess I don’t know if I love you, yet..”

“That’s okay. I’m not sure I love you yet either.”

“Why’d you mention it in the first place, anyway?” He turned to her, “You don’t really seem like that type of person.”

“..I suppose I was worried about dying a virgin.”

“Well, to be honest, I did almost die today.”

“I know. I can tell.”

“Is it that obvious?”

She reached out and gently caressed the side of his face, moving his silver locks aside. He had bags under his eyes, and a bruise on his cheek from when the arrow hit his mask. She rubbed it and he winced. Alyza leaned in closer, until their lips met and visited for a moment.

“I’m sorry,” she apologized after pulling away. “You all have been through so much, and here I am missing home. Forgive me for being so selfish, but I want to take you there. I want to steal you, and take you away from all of this.”

“Alyza, you don’t mean that..”

“No, no, I do! It’s not your fight. These people don’t care about you, if they saw you dead on the road, they’d simply pass you by! You don’t need to prove anything to anyone, you don’t need to save the world, Victus!” She grabbed his hands, her eyes pleading for him to consider her suggestion, and he almost did.

“I can’t..”

Her eyes, while saddened, gazed back at the water. She slowly let his hands go, “I know you can’t..I’m sorry I’m so selfish, I want you all to myself. All the potential suitors, all the men my mother and father wanted me to marry, none of them could even hold a candle to you. Yet you’re so..”

“Stupid?”

“Yes! You’re so stubborn and stupid and lovely and I hate it! Why couldn’t you be someone else?! Why must you be so stupidly good at being who you are?”

“Alyza..”

“I wish I was good at being who I am..”

“But I like who you are.”

“You don’t even know me.”

“I know enough to know that I like you. I know that, when you’re nervous, your pale face turns the shade of strawberries in the spring. I know that when I make you upset, you cross your arms and turn away, because you know if you look into my eyes, you’ll forgive me right away,” he took her hands, lifting them up the way she did. Her face was bright red, enthralled by his words. “I know that I’m about to be teased whenever you push your hair behind your ear, smiling in that cute way that you do. I know that you started wearing perfume the day after we got together, I know what kind of perfume it is, and I know that maybe it’s the Iphisnore talking, but I think..I think I do love you.”

There was a short silence. She tilted her head downward, tears falling down her cheeks. He continued, “And I know we’ve only known each other for a little over two weeks, but I want to get to know you more. I can’t promise that your family will like me, I can’t promise that I’ll like them, but I know I’ll always love you, and maybe that’s enough.”

She kept her head downward, until working up the strength to look back up at him, flushed and crying, but smiling. He’d worried that he may have somehow made her feel worse, until she finally spoke, “I love you too..”

Victus stared for a moment, before pulling her into his arms. Alyza cried more, gripping the back of his clothes. She rubbed her head into his shoulder, her face feeling warm and wet against him, soiled by tears. He only desired to hold her tighter, closer, even though this was as close as you could get. She felt so fragile, he thought, like she could break, even though she always put up this cold, strong exterior.

“I love you, Victus..”

“I love you too, Alyza..”

She lifted her head up, her eyes puffy. She sniffled.

“I’m so happy I met you..”